Tag Archives: T. S. Eliot

It is always a pleasure visiting Little Gidding and the temptation is to head the car from Great Gidding straight to the village, turning right at the red post box down the lane parking in the car park opposite Farrah House and the church of St John the Evangelist.

But on this visit inspiration called and we decided to carry on to Steeple Gidding .

St Andrews Church, Stepple Gidding, Cambridgeshire

There is a lovely walk from Steeple Gidding that leads you to Little Gidding, it takes you past the Church of St Andrews, Steeple Gidding which is under the care of The Churches Conservation Trust, across the rolling hills of Cambridgeshire.

No I have not lost the plot for in this part of the county there are some hills of note, but then again some may argue it is because you are so near the border of Northamptonshire which accounts for undulations, but I digress, if you continue to put one foot in front of another you will finally arrive at a stile once climbed, it leads you through a field which I believe is called the King’s Field after Charles I and into the grassy lane passing Farrah House and onto the church of Little Gidding.

In a time gone by there were two Aldwincle Parishes, Aldwincle St Peters and Aldwincle All Saints they were joined together in November 1879.

Aldwincle Village Sign Northamptonshire

To all appearances it is St Peters that is now the center of village life as All Saints sits a world apart opposte Dryden house on the way to Thorpe Waterville across Harper’s Brook and over the Nene river by Brancey Bridge.

All Saints Church Aldwincle Northamptonshire

John Dryden poet, playwright and critic was born in the house that sits in the shadow of church on the 9 August 1631.

Dryden House Aldwincle Northamptonshire

Son of Erasmas Dryden and Mary Pickering of Titchmarsh he was Christened in the Church of All Saints where his grandfather Henry Pickering was Rector were there is a tablet commemorating the event.

Church Commemorative Tablet

All Saints Church is now in the care of The Church Conservation Trust as it is no longer needed for regular worship but remains as consecrated buildings and is of historical importance, it is a delight to walk round and has always been open when ever we have visited.

All Saints Church Striking Interior

All Saints Church Stained Glass Window

Samuel Johnson summed up the general attitude to John Dryden with his remark that

“the veneration with which his name is pronounced by every cultivator of English literature,

is paid to him as he refined the language, improved the sentiments,

and tuned the numbers of English poetry.”

and tuned the numbers of English poetry.”

And T. S. Eliot wrote that he was

‘the ancestor of nearly all that is best in the poetry of the eighteenth century’,

and that ‘we cannot fully enjoy or rightly estimate a hundred years of English poetry

Little Gidding has history running through its environs, it sits nestled down sleepy lanes in Huntingdonshire were an effort has to be made to seek out its secrets.

In 1625 Nicolas Ferrars, his mother and family moved from London to Little Gidding to live a more simpler life setting up a community of religious observance. They set too and restored the manor house and chapel on the site.

Charles I visited Little Gidding a number of times the last was in 2nd May 1646 when he sought refuge from Cromwell’s men after the battle of Naseby.

The Ferrars family lived on at Little Gidding until the mid-eighteen century but the practice of the religious community ended with the death of John, Nicolas Ferrars brother and his wife in 1657.

William Hopkinson a Stamford Solicitor bought the property in 1848 becoming Lord of the manor, he built the house (Ferrars House) which stands today and restored the chapel after years of neglect.

There has been a few prominent poets associated with Little Gidding, George Herbert who was a close friend of Nicolas Ferrars, Richard Crashaw styled “the divine″, was part of the Seventeenth-century Metaphysical School of poets and visited Little Gidding often and one of the greatest twentieth century poets T. S. Eliot who visited on the 25th May 1936 inspiring the final poem in the Four Quartets, Little Gidding.